Random musings: My Sunday adventure

Tuesday, April 2, 2019

My Sunday adventure

I had an interesting, albeit very long, day on Sunday.

I started driving for Amazon Flex...think of it as Uber for packages. It takes a few days to complete the sign-up process because there is a (free) background check involved.

After you sign up, you can choose to work one of the available blocks...I've seen blocks for 3 hours and 4 hours, at different times on different days. I didn't have to be at work until 9:00 PM on Sunday, so I figured a block from 1:30 - 4:30 would be good. I guess it was good theoretically, it didn't work out quite as well in practice.

I got to the location in Manteca, about 23 miles from my apartment right at 1:30. I drove into the facility and was given 3 big carts with packages on them. I scanned the packages and crammed them in my car.

Then I drove back to Modesto, which is where the first group of packages were to be delivered. It took me some time to find the packages for each stop, but I've since found out about the zones that are printed on the labels.

After I delivered the packages in Modesto, I went to Denair. Denair is out in the middle of nowhere...actually it's on the far side of nowhere! I delivered a few packages there and then moved on to Turlock. At 6:30, I finished delivering the packages in Turlock,,,but the next delivery was in Tracy, which was an hour away. So, I called and told them I couldn't deliver any more packages that day, so I had to take them back to Manteca. At 7:30...6 hours and 140 miles after I started, I was finished and could head to work.

Each block has a certain payment amount associated with it. All but one that I've seen paid $18 an hour. So, I made $54...which would've been $18 an hour if I finished in 3 hours, but since I took 6 hours I only made $9 an hour.

They pay on Tuesdays and Fridays, so I've already been paid for my work on Sunday. And I have another block scheduled for Saturday, but now that I know about zones and a few other tips, I should be able to finish on time.

As to why there was no blog post yesterday...I got up early on Sunday to make it to Manteca on time. I figured I'd have plenty of time for a nap in my car afterwards, but no...I barely made it to work on time. Plus I went about 10 hours without eating, so I was too tired and weak to work on a blog post yesterday.

Here's what my block for Saturday looks like:

I'll give it another shot and see how it works out. It sounds like a pretty good way to make some extra money. I'll let you know in a future post whether it works out better or not.